Fat? People Will Always See You That Way

If you're female and overweight, we have bad news: Even if you lose weight, your friends will likely always think of you as fat. A new study finds that women have a hard time shedding the stigma of obesity, notes EurekAlert.org. Young men and women read about a woman who had either lost 70 pounds or remained at a stable weight, and who was currently either obese or thin, and were then asked questions about the woman and their feelings about her.

The study found that participants were more biased against obese people after reading about women who had lost weight than they were after reading about women who remained stable—even if the stable women were obese. "We were surprised to find that currently thin women were viewed differently depending on their weight history," says the lead researcher. "Those who had been obese in the past were perceived as less attractive than those who had always been thin, despite having identical height and weight." Hat tip to Gizmodo for the find. (More overweight stories.)